Daily Blues & Views

I awake with a simple thought,      sometimes laughing or silently singing, an advertising slogan, a punchline, or something said      decades ago. This condition has accompanied me through the pandemic,      there is no reason to smile or giggle so freely, yet I persist, momentarily unconscious that the universe is out of synch. There is no baseball,      there are no restaurants fully functioning, we wear masks, over the ones that everybody wears,      the Triple Crown is in semi-reverse order, the first Saturday in May is now in September,   The President is mentally ill,      his condition has infected thousands that are counted in the millions, there is no football,      we can no longer take orders, we take knees,      even if too many have heads inside poisonous clouds, there is no basketball,      in the grocery stor...

We are in the middle of another awakening on race relations.  There are town halls "on race" and everything from public service announcements to panel discussions.  This happens from time to time.  Yet, this time it feels different.  Maybe it is because those marching in the streets are a more diverse group than ever.  But still, the term race is used freely, with barely a mention that it is, in fact, a bogus concept.  That's right, it is a lie, a human construct, that, in reality, does not exist. I think it might be useful to but an anthropologist or a geneticist on one of these panels or programs to remind or reveal to those watching and speaking that there is little genetic difference between what most cling to as a race.  It's hard to believe that the archaic notion of different races still persists.  Some of the pseudo-scientists of the past, especially those who wrote books or espoused their own debunked theories are still cited by those wh...

I have a very rare record.  It is a 7 inch 331/3 disc that was recorded in 1968.  This small artifact would have no real value save for a few songs by one of the artists recorded. Here's the story:  Early in 1968 I took interest in a new literary magazine being planned by some UCLA students.  I think it was an ad in The Daily Bruin newspaper that first sparked my interest.  I was writing a lot of poetry in those days and was looking for outlets to publish.  Since I had succeeded in applying for and then getting accepted to a poetry workshop course, I had the novel thought in my mind that what I was saying might be worthy of a larget audience. As is often the case, when I met with a small group of the students behind the newspaper ad/call for submissions, I emerged as one of the "poetry editors" of the magazine.  To be sure, this was a fledgling effort, but the people involved had some solid ideas.  I liked them and their vision. The magazin...

The country has quarantine fatigue.  The weather, in most places, is goading the people to action.  They want more than extended walks, trips to the grocery store or gas station, essential forays into the dystopia.  They want their lives back. In typical American fashion, many feel the need to demand their rights, quote the Constitution, and demonstrate their rage in public.  The government is, according to this view, not treating them as the adults they are and they are mad as hell and won't take it anymore. They want nothing to do with spikes, new waves, or predictions of the "darkest winter" likely to come.  They need to go to the beach, the neighborhood bar, any restaurant, no matter what form that might take.  It's bad enough they can't attend a live sporting event, but at least some car, horse, and possibly human races will soon be held in silence.  There might even be basketball and some form of baseball. They are Americans and demand thei...

Yesterday was the first Saturday in May.  It might have been a traditional first Saturday if the Kentucky Derby had been run.  It wasn't.  For the first time in 75 years, the grandstand at Churchill Downs was empty.  Along with sports stadiums and large arenas, most race tracks have stopped. The Derby is a real harbinger of Spring along with the leaves on trees, robins, and snowmelt that fills rivers and streams.  The birds are there and the streams are swollen, but we don't have Spring Training anymore.  Not this year. All, however, is not doom and gloom.  Yesterday no Kentucky Derby but it has been rescheduled for the first Saturday in September.  The management at Oaklawn Park, in Hot Springs, Arkansas did take advantage of the date and offered in place of "the" Derby the 2020 version of the Arkansas Derby.  Oaklawn's Derby has traditionally been an important prep race for would-be Kentucky Derby aspirants.  That still goes.  R...

I got out my old copy of The Grapes of Wrath this morning.  Something I heard on an early national newscast used the phrase "I to We." That's Steinbeck's phrase, I thought, and then later I opened my battle-scarred copy of the text to Chapter 14 and re-read the little 3-page essay that is one of the most powerful inter-chapters of this epic novel.  I say battle-scarred because my copy looks as if it survived a war.  I purposely chose an old, beat-p copy of the novel when I first began to teach it on a regular basis.  That's because I intended to mark it up, write all over it, riddle it with Post-it notes and bend every page...often. What Steinbeck was writing about during the Great Depression of the 1930s is happening again, right now as our country grapples with the Coronavirus pandemic. This public health crisis was always political.  Just as a worker's wages, hours, and conditions have always been.  But we are experiencing a very large dose of kindn...

It's in the air.  No, not a virus or even the abundant pollen this time of year.  It's swirling like a wisp of smoke over our heads and silently through our minds.  Some articulate, but most just think about it.  The earth is seeking to right the ship.  The earth has sent out a memo and as we all know the times, they are a changin.' We've hit the end of the spectrum.  Can't go farther.  Turn, turn, turn. Some called it the myth of the eternal return; others simply karma.  What goes around comes back around.  Or some other version of payback.  This is not revenge.  This is learning a lesson. This is old school actions have consequences. Any thinking person knows that our democracy is in grave danger.  We have some immediate tasks to resolve but after the coronavirus pandemic, we have to come together as a nation and purge Washington D.C. of a hapless President and an administration that lacks the will or intelligence to lead ...